Wednesday, May 3rd con’t

The email indicates that we have been placed on an American Airlines flight and “if we accept the cabin changes click here”. Well, we are wondering what kind of “cabin change” has been made. So she makes a call and finds out that we are still in business class so nothing to worry there, but…Cindy had hired a van to take us all to the airport and now we have a flight that is leaving a couple of hours earlier than our original flight. So that means, we need to find transportation to the airport. We decide to go ahead and go do our shopping since we at least have the worst of our dilemma figured out so head out to the tube for one stop to Gloucester Road to Waitrose. We are all over the store looking for our favorite biscuits, chocolates and kitchen items we can’t get at home. While in the check out line, a woman looks at Sherri’s basket and says “wow someone is having a great Coronation Party”. We do get a little carried away and this time we actually bought not only scones, but clotted cream as well. She had read as long as it is in checked luggage and packaged up, there is no problem bringing it into the country. We get through checkout and package our goodies up in the shopping bags we brought and head back to South Ken. We decide to go upstairs and drop our things off and head down to dinner with Cindy and Alisa. Now our only issue is the refrigerator in our room doesn’t work so we decided to do what we used to do when we lived here in a Bed and Breakfast. Mom always put milk and any perishables out on the window sill. Our issue is, while there is a sill we can’t get to it because our windows push out to open. So we improvise and get a plastic shopping bag and put the clotted cream tubs in it and hung it on the handle out the window. Just hoping it doesn’t get blown off by the wind. We went downstairs and have dinner. Not my favorite thing to do, eating in a hotel restaurant, but again, we are so stressed out we don’t want to go out. After dinner, Sherri talks to the concierge who recommends a car service. It’s a little more than a cab to Paddington and the Heathrow Express which is how we would typically go home, however; we are at the top of the stress level meter at the moment and don’t need any more worries. We get the rest of our things sorted and try to go to bed, but neither of us is sleepy so we end up talking until nearly midnight and we have to get up at 5:30 but…we can always sleep on the plane! P.S. the picture is of our clotted cream hanging out our window. We took that in the restaurant below 🤣

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Today is shopping day! Yes I know we have done quite a bit of shopping already, but this is “official” shopping day!! We start off with our usual breakfast. I eat extra because usually on shopping day, lunch is “optional”. LOL. We start our day by walking down Brompton Road to Harrods. Yeah we could take the tube, but it’s not a bad walk and you never know what you’ll come across along the way as the shops have even changed since Sherri and I were here last year. we ogle at the pastry’s in some of the shop windows and try to stay warm as it is a cool morning but Sherri put hand warmers in our jacket pockets so that helped. We are a little early and the store has not opened yet, so we find a patch of sun and wait across the street until 10:00. Once the doors are opened, we head in. We browse around the food hall, looking at all the hand made chocolates, salads, sushi and an array of food, more food than you can possibly imagine. Fresh veg, meats and if I was a wealthy person, this would be your dream food hall! But, this is Harrods, so let’s get real LOL. After looking at a lot of things we cannot afford, we head to the Harrods shop. This is the area of the store where all of the “Harrods” products are. I am torn as to whether to buy all of the things I want here, or wait and get them at the airport tax free. I pick up a Christmas ornament which is a phone box and a little credit card wallet as I have a cheap one and use it a lot as I have gotten to where I don’t like to carry my purse everywhere. I found a beautiful silk scarf that had coronation things on it, but £85.00 is just too much for a scarf! I decide not to buy a mug here as I know that they have a good selection at the airport. After leaving Harrods, we head back to the hotel to drop off our things and then we head over to Fortum and Mason as we are scheduled to have Afternoon Tea here at 1:00. We get on the tube and head over to Green Park to head to Regent Street. We are a little early, so we walk down to Hatchard’s, our favorite book store and the oldest book store in the UK. I always buy a book that is published by the Royal , but the only one they have is on Prince Phillip, which I would love to have, but there is only one copy and the dust jacket is rather beat up. So I opt for a book on King Charles. We head over to Fortum and Mason googling over the window dressings as they are all so cool and related to the coronation. We browse around a little in the tea department as we still have a view minutes before our reservation. Then we get on the lift and head up to the 5th floor to the restaurant. There are a lot of people having tea here today but we are seated directly to our table. When you have tea here, you only need to choose the type of tea you want as everything else is brought for everyone, sandwiches, scones and desserts. The sandwiches are beef with a slaw, smoked salmon, eggs and mayo and of course cucumber. This is really something anyone who visits the UK must do as Afternoon Tea is just so quintessentially British!! After we have tea, we head down a few floors and browse the china department which had some beautiful (and expensive) teapots, luxury picnic hampers and a number of other kitchen items. We left Fortum and Mason and went next door to a Cath Kidston store that is going out of business. As much as I am dying to spend some money, I find nothing. We decide to walk over to Piccadilly Circus as it’s just not a visit to London without doing that. We get there and take a bunch of pictures and go to the Hard Rock store to see if there is anything we can’t live without. Sherri and Cindy bought some shirts, but I decided against it since I have so many in my drawer that I can’t fit in right now. We leave this area of the city and head back to the hotel. We decide to just rest for a little while and get our luggage sorted for the next day. As I am getting things together, Sherri is looking at her phone and receives an email from British Airways, our flight has been cancelled!!

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Today is castle day! We start our day as usual with our full English breakfast. When we came back to the room, Sherri was double checking trains and entry times, etc. and realises that Windsor is closed today for maintenance. We decided to change plans and go to Hampton Court Palace. We’ve been before, but again, never pass up seeing historical places. Sherri runs down to Alisa and Cindy’s room to run the new plan across them to see if they are ok with it and they are. So we head out to the station and make our way to Waterloo station to take the train to Hampton Court. We found out from the ticket desk that we can simply put an extension on our tube passes instead of purchasing a separate ticket. Sherri and I have enough but Cindy and Alisa need to top up and do so at the kiosk. The. Rid is only about 30 minutes or so and we get to Hampton and start walking towards the castle. It’s rather quiet however; we do pass a couple of what appear to be day care outings. The kids were so cute and they are all tethered together so no one gets lost. We get to the palace and are shocked that there is not many people around. There are a couple talking to the guard at the gate and we learn that, like Windsor, Hampton Court is also closed on Tuesdays!!! But we will not let this get us down. The guard tells us that we can at least walk to the back of the palace and get some sots of the gardens. So we walk along the river down to the back of the palace and take some pictures as best we can given there are not just one, but now two fences around the palace. But we have fun just talking and walking even though it’s a little chilly today. We end up walking back to the main road and after a discussion, we decide to go to Windsor even though we won’t be able to visit the castle. It’s a great little town to walk around in and we are sure it will be all dolled up for the coronation. So we buy some tickets and take the train in. We arrive not at the same station that Sherri and I arrived at for the wedding 5 years ago, but the station that is at the back side of the castle. We take a few pictures and make our way to the front. The picture taking is a little better here as we can at least stick our phones through the one gate and take unobstructed pictures of the castle. We then look for some lunch hoping to eat at the Horse and Groom pub, however; when we get there, we find they are not serving food today. We seem to be striking out every which way. Sherri has also eaten at another pub called the Carpenters Arms. I ordered the steak and ale pie and a half pint of London Pride. Sherri has the same except as usual she has Guinness. After we ate, we head back out to seek out shopping. There’s an Edinburgh Woolen Mill right next to the pub so we pop in to see what we can find. I had been looking for some bunting, but all I found in London wee paper and I wanted something that would make it through the rain. They had some plastic ones although I wanted the fabric, I fold and purchase them. When I get to the counter, the clerk tells me they are on sale three for two, so I scrape up 5 pounds as I had a ton of change I wanted to get rid of and that’s exactly what was in my wallet aside from a few left over pence! We purchase tickets to get back to the city as it ends up being cheaper because the woman at the station in Hampton Court said if we purchase a “family” ticket it is cheaper. We get back to London and drop off our things at the hotel and rested for a little while. Not wanting to eat so late, we decided to go ahead and eat at Khan’s tonight. Sherri and I walked to the restaurant and ordered our usual although we didn’t get as much food as we normally do after theater as we aren’t as hungry as we would have been later. I forgot to tell the waiter to make it mild and the food was pretty spicy! After dinner, we went back to the hotel and met Cindy and Alisa in the lounge and talked to them as they had dinner. We end up visiting late again and head upstairs to get some well needed rest. Shopping day tomorrow!

Monday con’t

We were hoping to find a Patisserie Valerie, but unfortunately; they have closed most of the ones that were convenient to us. We found another pastry shop called Pauls and went in to have a pastry and some coffee. After Covent Garden, we headed over to Victoria station as there is a lot of great shops over there, including Lush, our favorite bath and body product shop. I picked up a bunch of bath bombs for Ashleigh and myself and some of my favorite shampoo bars. Since we weren’t really hungry after having pastries so late in the day, we decided to pick up a pasty in the station and just head back to the hotel to eat. We went back to the hotel and left everything in our room and headed down to the lounge to have a drink with the girls. Sherri and I have a gin and tonic and we end up staying down talking until nearly 9:00. We still had not eaten but Sherri had wrapped up our pasty’s in a towel to keep them warm and while they weren’t really that by the time we got to them, they weren’t stone cold either so we sat in the bed watching the news and ate. Tomorrow we go to Windsor. I’m really excited as this was on our itinerary last year and we didn’t make it.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Today is our first full day in London. That means I get my second most favorite meal of the day, Full English Breakfast!! Yes, there is no other food pleasure than a full fry up of eggs, bacon, Cumberland sausages, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and beans. YES BEANS!!! After breakfast, we head out to the tube station and head over to the Royal Mews. Sherri and I have been here before, however; it has been a few years and Cindy and Alisa have never been and I will never say no to visiting a place that was near and dear to the late Majesty Queen Elizabeth. We saw the coaches and heard via audio guide the history behind each of them. Seeing the golden carriage that will carry Charles and Camilla next Saturday was surreal. Along with the State coach that will carry William, Catherine and their children we saw some other interesting coaches, and a sled that was gifted to Queen Victoria as she loved to sleigh through the castle grounds in the winter. After viewing the mews, we end up in my favorite place, the gift shop! This is usually a dangerous place for me, however; today is particularly dangerous because there are so many incredible Coronation memorabilia that I cannot say no to!! We bought way too many Christmas ornaments, as well as the official Coronation Guide and a few other things. Sherri and I did some serious damage. But this isn’t enough, we head over across the street to another shop as we learned they unearthed a few of the official Jubilee mugs which Sherri and I missed out on last year. They did not know anything about it, but directed us to the shop down the street and off we went and luckily, even though the person I spoke to knew nothing, Cindy found them! We are all on cloud nine and quite chuffed we got everything (and more) than what we wanted. See when Sherri and I came for the Jubilee, we made the mistake of not shopping when we first got to London and as you know, we went out to the Peak District for a week, so, when we returned, there was NO Jubilee mementos left to be had!! So for us to score the mugs was pretty awesome! We headed back towards the tube station, and also stopped off at one of our favorite souvenir shops, Cool Brittania. I picked up something for Zach, and the girls all found some goodies too. We decided to go back to the hotel and drop off what we have purchased and after, we went to Pret a Manger, our favorite sandwich shop, for some lunch. It had started raining now, and everyone was getting out of the rain. But Alisa found a table and luckily, while waiting for Sherri and Cindy to get lunch, some people at a larger table left so we quickly swooped in. We had a nice leisurely lunch and head back to the train. We made our way to Covent Garden to the Apple Market, as we really had nothing else planned for today. There is a Pandora store there right outside the tube station, and they had a collection of Coronation charms which I of course had to have. Alisa also purchased some things as well and then we walked over to the market, as we had been in a smaller Whittard earlier but, they didn’t have much, and this is a much bigger store (actually there are two stores which makes no sense to us), but the selection was much better. Sadly; (or maybe fortunately for my wallet) they no longer carry the beautiful teapots that I have purchased there in the past. But I did pick up some sticky toffee pudding hot chocolate, which I think is a fairy new product. I had told Alisa about the white hot chocolate they have, as it is delish, but I have some from my previous visit and wanted to try this new one. We also went into the Boots there, as I desperately needed nail polish remover as my nails have taken a beating even though I’ve not washed a dish in over a week!!

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Today is “get your behind off my boat” day LOL. We are very sad, however; we are somewhat glad at the same time as this means we are off to London! We wake up and get dressed as we have our bags packed already aside from what we had planned to wear and our makeup, etc. We head down to breakfast and sit by ourselves. We ordered some breakfast and had some very strong coffee. After breakfast, we get back to the room to brush our teeth and get our checked luggage outside with our gray tag. We are the last group to leave the boat. We sit in the lounge with Cindy and Alisa, as Heather and Bridget have left already. We start talking about what our next trip is going to be and decide to go ahead and put a deposit down. We haven’t decided yet, but it’s looking like a Christmas Market cruise. We walk up to Rachels desk and she takes care of securing our deposit for us. She is supposed to go to the airport at the same time as us, however; when the van came to pick us up, she is not able to leave. I was sad I had not been able to say goodbye as she must have gotten hung up by another passenger. We are very well taken care of both on the way to the airport and when we arrive. Ama employees were waiting for us to get there and walked us all the way to security to ensure we got on the right plane. Sherri and I get our luggage checked and head off in search of the BA lounge. We end up walking around for at least 30 minutes in vain and finally think we’ve found the lounge only to find out it was closed for renovation. But lucky for us, a BA employee came out and said the temporary lounge was in a cafe and she is headed there and asks us to follow her. We had actually walked past this cafe and saw the sign but did not read the fine print that indicated this was the BA as well as a couple of other airlines lounge. We get some nice fresh bread, cheese, ham, olives, and some yummy potato salad and some cole slaw. I was so hungry, but this hit the spot! It’s soon for loading the plane, so we make our way to the gate D16, which is our gate and are just in time to load. We are group 1 and board the plane quite quickly. We are served afternoon tea on the plane and I can barely eat, but manage to get down a little bit of sandwich, a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam and a couple of bites of carrot cake and tea of course! We land at Heathrow without incident as the flight is quite short. Once we get the skywalk connected, which took a minute, and we head down to get our luggage. That too takes a minute, but we make it through security and out to pick up our Heathrow Express tickets. We look at the cost and decide to take the Elizabeth Line instead. It isn’t a straight shot to Paddington, but we finally get there and grab a taxi to the hotel. As it is after 5:00, our room is ready and reception is super nice and have our luggage brought up to our room 449. Our room is nice and we get unpacked and wait for Cindy and Alisa to get here. I can’t remember what we were doing on Sherri’s phone, but we missed the first text from Cindy stating she was on her way, but we do catch the one where she is here. We went down to their room and then let them have a little time to get unpacked and we met in the lobby a little later and walk down to Bunch of Grapes for dinner. We walk all the way to Harvey Nics just to show them how easy it is to get to Harrods and other stores. We get to the pub and someone is sitting at our table which has been reserved. A not very nice man finally gets up and they clean the table and we sit down. We all go to the bar and place our orders for food and drink, my usual fish and chips and Gin and Tonic are all yummy. We come back to the hotel and sit in the bar for a bit, the girls had another drink, but I pass. We came back up to our room and I am so ready to get my jammies on and sleep. Tomorrow we go to the Royal Mews.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Today is Keukenhof Gardens! This is the whole reason we booked this trip as I have never been and Sherri has been once when she was about six years old (I got left at home with the nanny). We got up and had breakfast as usual and today was really early as we had to be on the bus at 8:00 because it’s about a 45 minute or so drive to Keukenhof and Rachel wanted us to get there early so as to avoid some of the crowds. This is the last weekend of the park being opened. It is only open 8 weeks out of the year during Tulip season. We arrived at the park with our guide and she took us on a short tour of some of the areas of the park and then allowed us to roam on our own with a meeting place and time later. We walked through so many rows of tulips, it is truly like nothing you have ever seen! We ran into Cindy and Alisa and shopped in one of the gift shops, I bought some clog slippers like the ones Rachel was wearing yesterday in her Delft dress and then we went in search of a waffle, taking beautiful pictures along the way. We spent about 3 hours in the park in total and after hitting a few more gift shops, we headed to the main entrance where we were to meet our guide. We get back to the boat and we have quite a bit of time to eat lunch and rest up before our second excursion which was the canal boat ride around Amsterdam. Lunch was calamari, white sausage, ham and eggplant salad for starters, and we had a Lye Sandwich which was ham, cheese on a pretzel roll with some kind of honey mustard and fries and got dessert, a vanilla mousse. We hang out in the room for a little bit and then we meet up front to take the river boat ride. We met our guide out front and walked to the dock. This was a lot of fun although after the busy morning of taking about 400 pictures of flowers, my phone dies before the tour is over, but I did get some pictures. We walk back to the boat and get ready for our last dinner of the cruise. We had a lovely dinner of Egplant salad which was marinated eggplant slice, tomato, peppers, zucchini and melon. Next, herb soup and a slow roasted brisket with vegetables. Dessert was a salted caramel cake which was a chocolate cake with crammed in the middle and ganache outside. We went to the lounge shortly but did not stay long as we needed to get things together for an early departure the next day.

Friday, con’t

After listening to Rachel explain how debarkation works for Sunday and talking about how we are all so full from all the fabulous food we have eaten while on this wonderful cruise, we ….head to dinner! LOL. Chef did a fabulous job tonight as we had a grilled Atlantic shrimp on a lime risotto appetizer, porcini mushroom soup it’s thyme foam and Parma ham biscuit, followed by a raspberry sparkling sorbet, and our main was beef Rossini style, slow roasted beef tenderloin with pate de Canard and a truffle jus. For dessert we had a chocolate apple tart and I also had rum raisin ice cream as I could not decide. Then chef brought a tray of mini macaroons, a chocolate nut something we couldn’t figure out and chocolate coconut balls, like the ones that chef brought around a few nights ago. We are stuffed to the gills and we decide even thought there was a singer from the Voice onboard for entertainment, to come back to the room and get showered and pack our suitcases as tomorrow is our last full day in Amsterdam and we will be gone most of the day to Keukenhof tomorrow. We get the bags packed and fall into bed. I am way too tired to write so am catching up in between Keukenhof and our canal tour this evening. This is our last night on the boat. I am so sad even though this means we are headed to our beloved London for a few days. Until later….

Friday, April 28, 2023

Today is Delft Factory day. As usual, we head down to breakfast and sit with another couple as we did not see Bridget and Heather, who usually beat us down to breakfast. After breakfast, we come back to the room to brush out teeth and grab out backpacks. We hear the final call for the bus and start running down the hall when I realise I don’t have my room card. You must have it as it has your personal number on it so that they can scan you in and out of the boat for safety purposes. We run back an I grab my card and we make it on the bus. But then we both realise we have left our vox devices (for hearing the guide) behind, but it is too late. We are able to borrow one, but it’s difficult to hear when not using the headset. We initially head to the city of Delft and walk to the city center. It is quite a mess as they are still cleaning up from King’s Day, the day before so a lot of scaffolding and barriers are in the way of taking pictures of architecture. But we do the best we can while taking the city in. It is REALLY cold and raining at this point, but we try not to let it stop us. We stop in a lovely little cheese shop that has all sorts of cheeses for sale. We can bring cheese back to the States as long as it is wrapped correctly. There are some lovely canals and we take some good shots of bicycles leaning against the rail full of flowers and some other interesting buildings. We walked back to the bus on time and are on our way to Delft Factory. We are able to jump the queue as usual, as apparently, Amalucia has some deal with these excursion destinations. We get to tour the factory and our guide shows us how the ceramics are made and how the molds soak up the liquid and then the piece is easily released from the mold. After our tour of Delft, we head to the gift shop. We don’t find much, but did buy a lovely beaker each that has windmills which is so very Holland and make our way to the bus. We come back to the ship and meet up with the girls in the dining room. After lunch, we come back to the room and make sure we have our vox devices in our bags and head to the lobby for our next excursion with is to Kinderdijk (pronounced Kinder-dyke). As stated before, it is very wet and very cold and we are quite bundled up as we are going to see the windmills. We once again were able to jump the queue and go right in. We walk across a bridge and stand there while we hear about the windmills and how they once were the primary source of removing water away from the land as the city is well below sea level. We head over to a small dock and get on an enclosed boat and this takes us around to see the windmills. We get off further down the lake and actually get to hear about the windmills and the job of the miller. The miller shows us how the windmill can be stopped, which is actually a quick process given how large they are and then he starts it back up. Some of these windmills since being decommissioned, are lived in by families, however; this one is specifically used for demonstrations. We go inside and climb up some very steep stairs and can see the parts moving inside. We climb back down and then go into a small shed like building that has some of the tools the millers used if needing to repair etc. We get back on the boat and head back to the main entrance where the gift shop is and Sherri and I opt to shop. The boat is docked just across the road so we will be walking back once finished. I bought some trinkets for the family and myself and we realise we have just 9 minutes to get to the ship. It is raining pretty good now and we are in such a rush, getting an umbrella out is not an option so we just walk/run in the rain up the hill to the boat. Worried we are the last ones, Sherri asks, but no, there are others behind us so we breath a sigh of relief as we are not “that person”. We come back to the room and change clothes for the gala tonight. We meet the girls in the lounge and the champagne is already flowing.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Today is Kings Day in the Netherlands and despite not being there now, we are all dressed in our orange to celebrate anyway as there will be some festivities tonight. We arrived in Antwerp sometime in the late evening, early morning hours and we are up on time today. We get showered and dressed, and head down to breakfast. Heather and Bridget are at a table with two other ladies, and there are two empty chairs so we join them. They have all just about finished, but we finally get noticed and place our order for breakfast. One of the ladies, Debbie, is an ex LPGA golfer and her friend, (Pat I believe), is also a golfer and they live in Florida. We visit for a while and then wrap up breakfast and come back to the room to wait for Rachel to summon us for our walk. In the lobby, we spot Rachel and she’s got this orange monster hat on her head. I cannot resist and call out to her so I can take her picture as we are walking off the boat. Our tour guide today is Nadine and she is lovely to listen to, and as with others, very informative about the city. She starts the walk off by talking about, diamonds of course. She explains that the jewelers that cut and polish the raw stones are primarily Jewish, Yiddish to be exact. She says they have their own part of town, with security, their own bank, their own shops, etc. and talks about the story of how a very large diamond was stolen in a heist that sparked the idea for the movie Ocean’s Eleven. This is why now, the security is so tight. Next she talked about the brass shells you will see in the pavement which mark the way for the St. James Pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, thousands made their way to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The shells are markers so along the way, they would get their book stamped and in each location, on the route, would then have a place to stay for free. The stamps would show they had completed that portion of the journey. Antwerp also has castles and the one we see is Het Steen and is Antwerp’s oldest building. We don’t go inside, but simply take pictures. They also have a wheel, like the Flyer in Singapore or the Eye in London which is situated along the water. We continue our walk through the city seeing some lovely buildings, public housing (which is very nice), and then we are at the Cathedral of Our Lady. There is a line to get in, however; Nadine asks us to wait, goes inside and then comes out and tells us we get to jump the queue. Inside our lovely Rachel is there and we begin our tour of the church. This is a beautiful church and much to our delight, there are two Ruben paintings inside. Nadine tells us the history of the church, and about how, when the Protestants took over the country, attempted to ban anything Catholic, removed all traces of the Saints (or so they thought). We continue through and see some of the most incredible confessionals as well as all the little chapels that are inside the church. She continues telling us how the women of Belgium are so strong and the pulpit represents that as it is being held up by women. Four, to represent each continent (as at the time there were only 4). One represents Europe, one Asia, one is dressed like Pocahontas so for the United States and the last is Africa. She gives great detail about Ruben’s life and how he learned to paint in Italy, but comes back to Belgium for his mother’s funeral. He does not plan to stay but falls in love and as such, stays in Belgium. We have had a wonderful morning and proceed to make our way back to the boat as we have an afternoon tour and need to eat beforehand. It is well past 11 and our tour was supposed to end at 11, so we decide not to wait and walk back ourselves. We once again encounter Rachel and she walks back to the boat with us. We drop off our coats and head down to the dining room where Cindy and Alisa are waiting for us. Lunch today was potato cakes, ham, salmon and a sauce that tasted like pimento cheese for starters, I had vegetable consommé and pasta for lunch and ice cream for dessert.

Wednesday April 26th con’t

We arrive back to the ship round 6 or so and come to the room to drop off our coats and refresh. Cindy has summoned us to the lounge and she has ordered chocolate martinis for the group and we drink and visit until dinner. We (or at least I), had forgotten that the drink of the day was margarita and did I need one? NO, but did I drink one? Yes and boy did I regret that later. We managed to get ourselves to the dining room and have a table in the back. Much to our delight we have Rachel and the second in command or co-Captain Frank dining with us and after those two very strong drinks, we are all in a great mood. I am sure that Frank is wondering what he has gotten himself into with all these crazy women at one table and he’s the only guy. But we have a wonderful dinner of beef striploin for starter, parsnip soup and a main of schnitzel, cucumbers and steamed vegetables and I believe it was caramel ice cream for dessert. After dinner, Sherri and I are calling it quits, so we head back to the room and I can barely get my journal written in, much less get my blog caught up. I will sleep well tonight whilst we travel to Antwerp for tomorrow!! I am so excited as Antwerp is known as the diamond capital of the world and well…diamonds ARE a girls best friend!!

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Today was a jam packed day. We went early to breakfast. I had a cheese omelette, bacon and some avocado toast. Back to the room to brush teeth, hair one more time and grab our jackets. Our day began with a bus trip to Bruges. This is a quaint town and our guide is Rik. He’s awesome and very informative. Bruges has lots of history and is the capital of West Flanders in Northwest Belgium. It is distinguished by its cobblestone streets, canals and medieval buildings. The port Zeebruge is important to the fishing and European trade. We walked to the city center, walking past a nunnery which can only be passed through before 6PM as the gates are closed after and no one is allowed entry. We walked down a lot of alleyways and were able to peek into a couple of gardens along the way. We passed a small sweet shop that had giant merengues in the window. Some of all different flavors. We passed by the beautiful cathedral called the Church of Our Lady. It was one of the largest churches I believe I have ever seen although we did not go inside. However; it does have the smallest window in all of Bruges. We did not eat lunch as Sherri and I were looking for some things to buy and chocolate. We were able to find the Leonidas chocolate store and also picked up a magnet and key chain at a small souvenir shop. After running in to Alisa and Cindy, and learning that she found a Belgium lace Christmas ornament, we quickly ran to the shop, which was close by,and got one for ourselves. The woman in the shop was so lovely and friendly, and said that once these were gone, there would be no more ,as there were not many that tatted the lace by hand and making them anymore, so this made it even more special for us. As we were minutes away from our 1:00 deadline, we ran back to the square and met the group and we walked to the bus to go to our next town, Ghent (or Gent as it is spelled in most of Belgium). It was just about a 30 minute or so bus ride so we didn’t get much rest, but it was nice to be off of our feet for a while. We arrived in Ghent which seemed to be a little larger than Bruges, and not lacking in architecture. Ghent is also a port city in northwest Belgium where the Leie and Scheldt rivers meet. It is now a college town with a number of university students living there and wow the number of bicycles we see either parked at the lot or on the street, one better put some kind of distinguished markings on their bike to know which one is there’s!!! This again was a walking tour, therefore; we walked all over the city. There are a number of churches, although Rik tells us that most of them are empty on Sundays LOL. Ghent is a medieval city and the architecture reflects that. There is actually a castle here, dating back to 1180 called the Castle of Counts. We have a bit of free time and Sherri and I are starving. We walk down some side streets looking for a place to pick up something light to just hold us over until dinner. I was looking for fries. Yes I know, fries you say? But Belgium is known for fries and they eat them with mayonnaise and not ketchup! In fact, you won’t get offered ketchup as it is quit taboo LOL. We found a lovely little bakery called Aux Merveilleux that had a lot of yummy looking things in the window. We step inside and I got a chocolate chip “Melkbrood” which is a bit like brioche bread and Sherri had one with raisins. We sat at a little table outside and enjoyed our bread. I didn’t realise until I thought to take a picture of the beautiful treats in the window there is a huge chandelier hanging over the area where they prepare the food. There were also merengues here as well, very decorated and Sherri got one each for us to try later. We meet up with the group and walk back to the bus for the ride home.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Today, we got up very late. Very late for us!! We barely make it to the dining room a few minutes before breakfast. I order a cheese omelette and some bacon as I missed out yesterday on the bacon! I also had some pastries and some delicious yogurt and granola. It’s sure not like what we have at home. So fresh and delicious. We are not to arrive in Middleburg until after lunch and I am not feeling swell so I just have some beef consommé for lunch. We come back to the room for a little while and then we are ready to head out on our next excursion which is a walking tour of Middleburg. We met our guide Hans outside. This town is a bit below sea level, therefore there are a lot of dikes. This is the second day we don’t spend any money. We walk through the town, see the canals, interesting alley ways and a statue of Queen Emma who was the queen mum to Queen Wilhelmina of Belgium and reigned for 8 years until her daughter became of age to rule. Hans then gives us about an hour to explore on our own. Sherri and decide to come back to the ship after shopping for a short while. I did not buy anything. We head back to the ship just in time for happy hour. The drink tonight is a Manhattan and we have live entertainment by two violinists and a guitarist. They play anything from the pink panther theme to the theme from The Godfather. After happy hour we head to our table where Rachel is supposed to join us, however; she is busy with a guest who took a nasty fall outside of the ship and was taken to hospital. She wanted to make sure she was ok. We make it to our private table that Cindy reserved. Dinner is a beer and watermelon salad and I ordered the strip loin steak rather than the Turkey. I am so tired tonight I can’t do much of anything. I need to take a shower and wash my hair tonight as we need to get up early in the morning for our trip to Bruges and Ghent. We have had such a great time on this cruise. I can honestly say, this is something everyone should do,. The staff are great, the captain is wonderful and the Cruise Director Rachel, she’s just amazing! I love her early morning “good morning everyone” when she is making announcements regarding our day trips!! We finally make it to bed to rest. Best cousins trip ever!!!

Monday, April 24, 2023

I’m already starting off on the wrong foot by getting back to our room so late that I am so tired I can’t stay up to write. Today is our first full day. We got up and had breakfast in the dining room and then came back to our room as during breakfast, we left Amsterdam, to head to Hoorn which will be where we have our first excursion. We came back to our room and were quite delisted we have another gift waiting for us. I failed to mention on the first day, we had a small pouch with a luggage tag left on our beds. Today, we had a beautiful scarf awaiting us as well as our invitation to the Captans table tonight and the menu which will be served. We had lunch which was quite delicious, various appetizers such as tomatoes an mozzarella salad, cold duck and some other condiments and then pasta and bread pudding for dessert. After lunch we arrived at our destination for the day. We chose the Zuiderzee (pronounced Zider-say, and means the Southern Sea) Museum as our excursion. We have to take a small bus to a public park to take a larger bus and then a ferry boat out to the museum. It is about 45 minutes ride from Hoorn. After some bus mixups, we finally are on our way. Our guide is Else, pronounced as she said “what else”. She went to High School in the US and said she was teased as they called her Else the Borden cow. She is quite delightful and a wealth of knowledge. The Zuiderzee is an outdoor museum and is a recreated village of a hundred years ago. We see small houses that housed families so large they have to put the children in the attic to sleep, we see how laundry is done using coal to heat the water and see how they used drying racks, etc. There are fish smokehouses and windmills. It is quite cold and I am wishing that I had the jacket I bought for the Highlands a few years ago! But despite the cold and sometimes rain, we have a good time. We are pressed for time as the tour is supposed to have us back to the ship by 5:45 and we have a 7:00 reservation at the Captains table for dinner. By the time we get back on the ship it is 6:00 or shortly thereafter and we quickly get cleaned up and clothes changed. Dinner is incredible and the staff are the same, taking amazing care of us. We walk in to glasses of champagne and after some group pictures, we sit down to our first course which is a beet and tomato salad, second is salmon with avocado and vegetables, then a lovely lemongrass coconut shrimp soup. Then we had walleyed fish with bulgur, pumpkin and spinach. Sorbet today was cassis berry and champagne and then for the main a boneless beef rib, pave potatoes and parsnip purée. Dessert was two tarts, bitter chocolate and citrus and then a mango sorbet. Lest I forget, many glasses of wine in between, white, red, port…..you get the picture. After dinner we head to the lounge for “Silent Disco”. This is where everyone has headphones on, some hearing one song some hearing another. It was funny because everyone is singing, but different songs. Let’s just say that I am getting a little old to be dancing the night away until the wee hours and I dearly paid for it the next morning. Tomorrow is Middleburg.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

We landed Heathrow at around 10:30 and hung out in the lounge until our flight to Amsterdam, which was around 1:00. We got a late start as apparently, the plane coming in was delayed. This flight wasn’t long, but they did serve us lunch. For me a squash and sun dried tomato salad which comprised of chilled marinated butternut squash, sun dried tomatoes, broccolini and red peppers on top of a crème fresh, fresh roll and for dessert raspberry panna cotta. Sherri had a prawn salad and the same dessert. By the time we landed and got through immigration, it was fairly late and we were unable to locate the ship staff who were to be waiting for us. I located someone from Odyssey cruises at the checkpoint meeting spot and asked her if she knew where Amawaterways was. She indicated they should have been waiting at baggage claim,however; made a quick call to say they had left due to us being so late. But within minutes, she had them on the phone and shortly after, they were there to pick us up. Our first experience with the welcoming Dutch! Everyone here has been so incredibly nice. It was about a 30 minute drive from the airport to the ship and it is now raining. There were two very nice gentlemen that met us at the dock and wheeled our luggage to the boat as we followed behind. Upon entering the ship, we met Rachel, our cruise director. She is the most bubbly and friendly person I have ever met. We later learned her mother is Brazilian and her father is Dutch as we met all of the staff in the welcoming reception later that evening before dinner. Our room is lovely and as spacious as any European hotel room and we’ve got a sit on balcony as well as another sliding door the opens to the outside. After the reception and many glasses of champagne, we head down to the dining room for dinner. There are six of us in total and my cousin’s friends are super fun to be around and we had a very enjoyable evening. Dinner was 5 courses, beginning with a crab cake, tomato consommé with julienned vegetables, lemon sorbet, slow cooked beef strip loin in red sauce with balsamic shallots and for dessert strawberry heaven, which was heaven as it was Baileys topped with homemade strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries and whipped cream with a cookie stuck on the side. After much wine and food, we were exhausted and came back to the room around 9:30 and took showers and tumbled to bed and were asleep within minutes.

Apri 22, 2023 5:52PM

We’ve been at the airport for about an hour or so. Ashleigh and Zach got us here quickly and to our gate. The check in line was easy, but security was insane. The line was all the way through the terminal and back again, but moved fairly quickly. The great thing was we didn’t have to take our liquids, or electronics out, and best of all we didn’t have to remove our shoes, to get through security. They had the dogs there so, we passed the sniff test, and because it was so busy, they were anxious to get us out of there I suppose. British Airways, a couple of years ago, did away with a separate lounge and now is part of “One World”, so we go to the American Airlines Lounge to chill out before our flight. We found a seat next to the window so we are able to watch planes come and go. I got us some drinks and snacks, and while the food looks wonderful, we aren’t the slightest bit hungry.

April 19, 2023

Well I am quite behind in my pre-trip posting. We have three days, five hours and fourth five minutes to lift off!! Honestly; this is the least prepared I have ever been for a trip! I do have my clothes picked out, however; they are not completely packed yet. I’ve got some things in the bag, but most definitely have a lot of work to do. This trip is going to be epic because not only are we going to new countries, and we are going to be on a river cruise, which is a first for me, but our cousin is meeting us there, so lots of firsts and we are going to have a good time!! We will start off in Amsterdam, and then cruise up to Hoorn, Middleburg and Ghent, then on to Belgium to Antwerp (I’m so excited!) then back up to Rotterdam, Kinderdijk and then back to Amsterdam. Sherri has been teasing me with YouTube videos of our ship as well as the scenery on the way to the various destinations. Then we will fly back to London and spend a few days there leaving just before King Charles III Coronation. We are hoping to at least see some of the preparations or practices, but after being in the City for our beloved Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we are not keen to experiencing that again. Once in a lifetime is enough and I’ll be quite happy to be curled up on my couch with a nice cuppa and watch it on the tellly. Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I‘ll either be in the Executive Lounge at the airport enjoying a glass of champagne or a gin and tonic (OMG I haven’t had one in so long!) or I will actually be on the plane! Until then!